


My Bespoke Psychopath

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Canon-ish, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, the plot will happen eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-16 17:50:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5835079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her name was Melody Pond. She had one purpose; to kill the Doctor. At least, that was what she had been told.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the conversation between River and Twelve in Husbands of River Song- exploring River's capacity to love.

Her name was Melody Pond. She had one purpose; to kill the Doctor. At least, that was what she had been told. 

Melody was a bright child, a tiny, inquisitive little thing, with huge eyes, who loved to read more than anything in the world. She thought she was an orphan, or at the very least, she’d never met her parents. The photos she had of them showed a smiling woman, with hair the colour of the sunsets she liked to watch from her bedroom window; and a dorky looking man, who looked at the woman as though he was watching the stars in the sky themselves.

Melody was special. She lived in the Graystark Hall Orphanage in Florida, but a few times a week she would be taken somewhere else at night. She assumed she was escorted, as she doubted Doctor Renfrew would allow her into the night on her own, but she couldn’t remember who took her to the large house on the edge of town, which she learned was called “The Academy”. Despite not knowing how she got their each night, the one thing Melody was certain of was that she hated being there. She hated the people, hated Madam Kovarian with her creepy eyepatch, she hated the suit she was forced into, and the horrible things they said about her and her “purpose”. 

When she was in the suit, she felt as though she was being force-fed propaganda and information she was of the opinion that at age 8, she didn’t really need to know or care about. They also told her that the suit would keep her alive as she had developed an illness that was only talked about in hushed tones around the orphanage and The Academy when they thought she wasn’t listening. Melody didn’t care. Being in the suit represented a lack of control and that was not something that Melody enjoyed.

The only positive to come out of her being at The Academy is that she could read there. There was a library far bigger than every room in the orphanage put together, and she would hide in there, tucked away between bookshelves and piles of books, surrounded by stories, anything to delay the start of her time in that damn suit. 

But her favourite stories were those of the Doctor. She didn’t tell anyone she thought about him. She knew she wasn’t supposed to. She was taught that he was evil, a scourge on the universe but she didn’t believe that. When she was in the library, she learnt that by climbing the bookshelves she could traverse across the tops and sneak into the restricted section, unbeknownst to the guards. That was where the stories about him were. She’d grab a pile of battle reports, and curl up in one of the top shelves and pore over the reports. Apparently the Doctor was to blame for all of them, but she couldn’t see it like that. She though he was a superhero, he saved so many of the strange people mentioned and always vanquished the bad guys.

Melody shut her eyes and leant her head back against the bookshelf. She let her imagination run free, soaring through planets and constellations, leaping out of spaceships and being caught by the magical Doctor. Running down winding corridors, dodging alien weapon-fire and laughing at the top of her voice whilst her wonderful Doctor would grab her hand and grin at her. 

“Melody Pond, what on this Earth do you think you are doing? Get down here this instant.” Came a screeching voice from the door. Madame Kovarian was standing in the doorway, a sour, if not slightly panicked expression twisted onto her face; flanked by huge soldiers holding guns (who also wore the stupid eyepatch).  
Melody knew she was in trouble. She shouldn’t be in the library, let alone this section. She calculated she had approximately four seconds to think of a response, her heart thudding almost double time against her chest. 

“I, er, was trying to understand more about the Doctor. I just want to be able to anticipate his movements when I…um… get to…you know…kill him”. Melody stammered as she climbed down the shelves, grateful that this meant her face was hidden from Kovarian. She turned around, eyes widened and padded slowly and carefully towards the woman, trying to quell the sudden, burning desire to shout and scream at the woman she so hated.

Apparently this was a good enough answer.

“Oh little Melody you should have asked, anything to help you” Kovarian cooed, in the sickly sweet tone she insisted on using around Melody.

“But now, it’s time for work.”

The soldiers put a hand each on Melody’s tiny shoulders and guided her down the corridor towards the room she feared most. Usually this would be accompanied with a great deal of kicking and screaming (and biting). This time however, she wasn’t afraid, her head was filled with stories, stories of her wonderful superhero. Melody allowed herself a small smile as they pushed her through the doorway. This time her sleep whilst they adjusted the suit wouldn’t be too bad, she could dream about the Doctor, about her Doctor. Not the evil, abhorrent man they would be feeding her information about, but the hero she knew he truly was.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melody begins to learn the truth

Melody knew she was ill. She could feel a constant tickle in the back of her throat, and noted that breathing wasn’t always quite as simple as the people around her made it out to be. Everyone at The Academy was fussing over her, so much so that she was kept there almost permanently, despite her protestations about needing to go back to the orphanage- lest Doctor Renfrew be worried about her.

She hadn’t been to the orphanage in what felt like months, but she’d dreamt about being there whilst she was spending time in the space suit. Before drifting off, she very clearly remembered Kovarian whispering that the “spacemen were going to eat her”, sending her into a mild panic as the anaesthetic they had administered had worked its way around her system. 

She wasn’t entirely sure what had happened in this dream, but there was people running and shouting and screaming and she was sure she got a glimpse of her mother. Her mother was with the Doctor, who was all limbs and bow tie and as marvellous as Melody had thought he would be. 

She remembered stumbling towards them, arms outstretched, willing her body to move faster so she could be with them, but then she was falling, her visor was cracked and she thought that her mother had shot at her. But it couldn’t be her mother, her mother was dead? It had to be a dream.

She did remember what happened after, of forcing herself out of the suit and running until her chest burned and she couldn’t move any further. She remembered hiding in the orphanage whilst the woman who was looked like her mother but couldn’t be her mother cried on the floor of her bedroom. 

There was other people around too, they all ran at full pelt up the stairs and into her room. The Doctor was there of course, he ran like he didn’t really have control of his knees. There was another man in a black suit and sunglasses, a geeky looking man who she thought might be her father, and a woman with huge space-hair who Melody could have sworn looked straight at her. They did a lot of shouting and told the floor that they would find “Amy”- whoever Amy was.

But again, Melody was sure it was just a dream. Her parents didn’t exist anymore, and she had no idea who the space-hair lady was.

Melody had been left alone for a few weeks after that. Someone had made the decision to keep her at The Academy but they didn’t force her to do anything, not even spend time in the suit. She was never completely alone though, Kovarian or one of her cronies was constantly in the same room as her- but she didn’t feel the need to make conversation with her. Naturally, Melody chose to spend the majority of this new found freedom in the library.

Melody still preferred to move around the library by climbing over shelves and balancing precariously a few meters above the ground. She realised that she didn’t have much need for it now, she was allowed to peruse whichever sections of the library she pleased, even those that were previously restricted; but she enjoyed the look of terror on Madam Kovarian’s face as she nimbly jumped from shelf to shelf.

Melody was just about to turn 9 when she found the battle report that would change her life. 

She’d climbed up to the top of the highest bookshelf when she saw a drawer labelled with a date that fell somewhere in the 52nd Century. She opened it and pulled out the largest file she had ever seen, marked at the top with the words “Demons Run”. She was sure that she’d heard that phrase before, maybe during the nights she spent eavesdropping at the orphanage.

After flicking through, she found a script marked with her name, with pictures of spiralling molecules and codes made up of As, Ts, Cs and Gs that she didn't quite understand. Her eyes were drawn to her birth certificate. How could she have been born in the 52nd century? She knew she was in 1969 now. And another thing, she’d never seen her parents’ names before. Amelia Pond and Rory Williams. 

She wondered for a moment why she was called Melody Pond and not Melody Williams; but then decided that Melody Pond made her sound like a superhero, someone who would fit right in with the Doctor.

She’d been sitting in the bookshelves for as long as she can remember but this is the first time she’s ever come close to falling. 

_"Melody Pond was removed from Amelia Pond two weeks after birth. Despite the Doctor rallying an army to save her, efforts were futile and the Ponds were left with a ganger duplicate of Melody. The Doctor made promises to the couple to find the child but as of yet, no attempts have been made."_

Melody wobbled and a small cry escaped her lips. They hadn't died. She hadn't been left alone after some accident. She'd been taken. Fury started to spread around her body, filling her with an urge to lash out, to steal a gun and finish what the Doctor had started at Demon's Run. 

She read on, scanning the text for any information on her parents. They travelled with the Doctor, or at least, they did. Now it seemed, that they were in New York. They were in New York now. She could be with them and maybe even the Doctor if she tried hard enough. But how? How could she?

She could run. 

Or at least, she could try.

Running was a good idea, it’s what the Doctor always did and he always seemed to win. Melody knew they probably wouldn’t let her out but she knew she had to try something. She ripped off the section of paper that contained the names of her parents and shoved it into the waistband of her skirt. Hands shaking, she sorted all of the papers and shoved them back into their drawers, she knew they’d find her if she left any clues to who she might be looking for.

She said a silent prayer to make sure her lungs stayed working and jumped down from the bookshelf, wanting to freak Kovarian out one last time.

She thought her best chance was just to be confident, because that's what the Doctor did. She took a deep breath and walked out of the library, into the corridor and to the front doors. She glanced behind her, and then gave an almighty push. The doors opened, and she fled into the night.

_Alarm bells were sounding across The Academy. Soldiers with guns were beginning to stand in formation._

_“Ma’am, the subject has escaped, we’re sending our largest swat team to recover the child” barked the burliest solider of them all._

_“No need” Kovarian cooed “We will get her eventually”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot will get going eventually I promise. Hope you enjoyed the second chapter!


End file.
